Page 27 of Hard Evidence
“You don’t want to go back to that?You’d rather work a regular job?”
“I’d love to start blogging again, but I don’t have a kitchen at the moment, plus I had to leave all my equipment behind.I don’t even have a tripod for my phone.Although in the beginning, I just taped the phone to a wooden spoon and fixed the spoon to a cupboard because I had no clue what I was doing, and…” Jessalyn laughed nervously.“People expect more from me now.My sponsors don’t want spoon-cam.Heck, I must have broken so many contracts when I left, but I don’t even know what they said because Ridge dealt with the legal stuff.”
“Did you have a lawyer?”
“Yes, Ridge.”
The husband was also a lawyer?Dammit, this got worse and worse.
“Tell me he’s not a divorce lawyer?”
“He’s a personal injury lawyer.”
“An ambulance chaser?”
“If you called him that to his face, he’d sue for defamation.”
“Figures.”
“And he controlled everything.So I could make a new blog, but I don’t have access to the old one.I’d be starting again from nothing.And I want to do that someday, I do, but losing most of my money just took the wind out of my sails, you know?”
“I do know.There was a point in my life when I lost everything and had to start from scratch, and the world looked pretty damn bleak back then.But I promise you can get through it.”
Jessalyn regarded him curiously.“You got divorced?”
“I’ve never been married.”Hell, he might as well tell her.If she googled him, she’d find out anyway.Norquist wasn’t a common last name.“When I was younger, I lived in a house-share, and one of my roommates was murdered.”
She gasped.“Oh my goodness.Did they catch the person who did it?”
“Yeah, and he was our landlord, so we lost the house as well.During the trial, there was a whole media storm whipped up by his parents, and…” Better not to confess he’d been a murder suspect.“It was a bad time.”
Her bottom lip quivered, and he feared she might cry again.“I’m sorry that happened.”
“Me too.And I didn’t mean to make you nervous by talking about murderous landlords.You want me to put a lock on your bedroom door?”
He could find one from somewhere.Drive over to the workshop, or steel himself and visit his duplex, where the garage was an Aladdin’s cave of tools and hardware he’d accumulated over the years.
But she shook her head.“It’s okay.Shiro’s sleeping in front of the door.”
“I hate to break it to you, but that dog isn’t going to bite a burglar.He seems a little…shut down?”
“He’s scared of Ridge.”A pause.“I left for him.For Shiro.Ridge took him to the shelter, so I picked him up and just kept on going.”
Guess that explained the absence of a proper plan, but at least she was out of there.That was all that mattered.Now Justin had to keep her from going back, because the husband would try to convince her she’d made a mistake; they always did.And with every capitulation, that kind of man grew stronger and meaner and eventually burned down your house with you inside it.
Justin hadn’t been there for the fire.Hadn’t even known his mom had returned to the man she’d sworn she’d left for good this time.A neighbour had called to break the news that she was dead, and when Justin arrived back in Decatur, all that remained was a blackened shell with crime scene tape fluttering in the wind.And the smell.He’d never forget the smell.Or his father’s behaviour in the aftermath—while Justin spoke with the police and arranged his mom’s funeral, his father put in an insurance claim for property damage and downloaded several online dating apps.That motherfucker’s arrest had come as a relief rather than a shock.
Now, visiting his own duplex gave Justin PTSD, and even though no one had died there, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to live in the property again.
Speaking of which… He checked the calendar on his phone.Yes, the meeting with the loss adjuster was this Thursday.
“You did the right thing.Men like your husband never change; they only escalate.We’ll get everything straightened out, but we’re going to have to visit the grocery store tomorrow afternoon because I just remembered I have a meeting at eleven.We can file the police report first thing.”
“My car might be drivable in the morning.”
“It isn’t safe to drive.Jake said he’d bring his tow truck over sometime tomorrow.”
Justin had two vehicles, but he didn’t know Jessalyn well enough to risk handing over the keys to his BMW.She didn’t trust men—understandable—and in her shoes, Justin might have been tempted to keep on driving too.
